Anatomy of Little Cricket's "Easter"

This is the perfect pop song to break down, because it isn’t so obvious how we should label each part. There are particular sections that meet the definition of more than one category, so we’ll need to look at the big picture in order to be sure of each part's role in the song.

If you want to follow along, you can hear the song on Little Cricket's Bandcamp.

0:00

The song starts without vocals, so right away we can eliminate “verse” and “chorus” as possible labels. That leaves only one real possibility: the song starts with an intro.

Remember, an intro is unique to the song, even if elements of it are used elsewhere, but what’s always true is that it comes first.

0:15

After the intro, the vocals enter. They aren’t particularly catchy, and they don’t sound like words that would be repeated, but we can’t yet be sure if we’re dealing with a verse. Let’s move on.

0:31

The third part of the song is another instrumental part. This is where things get interesting. If it wasn’t for the fact that this isn’t the beginning of the song (and we already have an intro), it would sound like an intro. But this is something else. The lack of vocals means it’s not a chorus. It could be a pre-chorus, but that would mean it would need to be followed by a chorus. Let’s find out.

0:49

The next part is like the second: same chord progression, but the lyrics are different. Now we can be sure these are verses. It’s also worth noting that although the instrumentation has evolved a bit, the dynamics are about the same.

1:04

After the second verse, we get a new part, and there are vocals. This could be the pre-chorus, the chorus, or the bridge, though it’s highly unlikely to be the bridge, as we have yet to hear a chorus. Let’s keep going.

1:21

Next, we again get that mysterious instrumental part.

1:29

After that, we get another verse, though this time it’s louder.

1:47

The next part of the song is rather interesting. We hear the same chord progression we heard during the intro, but this time there are vocals. This could be the chorus, especially because the lyrics are repeatable, but it isn’t particularly catchy. This would raise the question of what to call the fifth part, at 1:04.

It could also be the bridge. This would make sense, given its location in the song’s structure, after three verses.

The third possibility is that this is a pre-chorus. It would be unusual for it to take place so late in the song, but rules are (sometimes) meant to be broken.

2:03

This is the longest part of the song. It has vocals. They’re catchy. It’s almost identical to the fifth part at 1:04 in chord progression, melody, and lyrics. This is almost certainly the chorus, which would make it the second in the song, and the louder, dynamically. Alternatively, it could be the bridge, but bridges aren't typically modeled after other parts in the song.

2:51

Same chord progression as the first and eighth parts. Same vocals as the eighth. This could be thought of as the last part of the second chorus, or a repetition of the eighth part, which would make it either the bridge or the pre-chorus, in which case we’d expect to hear it before the chorus.. But we don’t.

2:57

The last thing we hear is the same part as the third and the sixth. The only difference is where it falls in the song. This makes it safe to call an outro.

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So what’s interesting about this particular song is that we have a repeating part that refuses to be labeled, namely the third/sixth part(s). We haven’t yet assigned the label “bridge” in this song, but the instrumental section in question doesn’t quite fit the bill.

The lesson to learn here is that when it comes to art, not everything fits neatly into a box. We could use the available "bridge" label to describe the part, even if it's a bit inaccurate. We could come up with a new term, like "instrumental." Or we could simply combine the part in question with one of its neighboring sections.

For the record, the "instrumental" part is not the only strange thing about this pop song’s structure (but it’s probably the strangest).

With that said, I would label the entire structure of the song as follows:

Intro

Verse

Instrumental

Verse

Chorus

Instrumental

Verse

Pre-chorus

Chorus

Outro I can't stress enough that this is not a science. It's completely subjective. But it's a good way to get your footing as a songwriter so that you can find the right compromise between the unique and the familiar in order to draw in your audience.